Fave Books of 2007: Part One

I'll be getting into my fave DVDs and movies of 2007 in the next few days, but reckoned it best to kick off with my favorite books of the year. After all, we're all readers in this tribe, yes?

It's been a great year for reading and books, and this off-the-top-of-my-head list of my fave book experiences of the year shouldn't be taken as a 'best of' list -- I've not stayed abreast of the new fiction out this year, and though I'm omnivorous as a non-fiction reader, my interests are too peculiar and personal to even pretend I could possibly generate a "best of" reading list most readers would recognize.

But having read two-to-three books per week this past year, I can say with certainty that these were among my favorite reads, revisits and discoveries of the year!

New Works

Book of the Year! Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark

Book of the Year? It sure is to this diehard fan! Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark is Tim Lucas's valentine to cinema, and among the most stunning movie books of this or any year.

As Mark Martin commented on this blog after my umpteenth enthusiastic post about its pending arrival and revelatory publication, "You're gonna make that book pregnant." Knock it up, baby! I couldn't have been more excited about a book than I was about Tim Lucas's long-awaited Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, and I couldn't have been more satisfied with the book itself, which somehow exceeded all expectations -- and that's saying a lot, since I've been waiting for a book like this for at least 40 of my 52 years of life.

It's literally a dream book -- I mean, one of those books I had dreamed all my life might, should, someday had to exist -- and that's just what it was for Tim, too. Thankfully, Tim and Donna (who designed this masterpiece) Lucas made Tim's dream come true, and by doing so created the book of the year!

As I've discussed here ad infinitum, Bava's films had a potent, indelible impact on my own life, and definitely impacted my creative life in more ways that I can count. It's somehow appropriate that Tim's expansive biography has arrived at a time when almost the whole of Bava's directorial work is available on DVD, and for the first time as it was intended to be seen: uncut, widescreen, and in their original language(s) rather than cut, dubbed and pan-and-scanned. I Vampiri/The Devil's Commandment, Caltiki The Immortal Monster, Black Sunday, Gli Invasori/Erik the Conqueror, Black Sabbath, The Whip and the Body/What!, Blood and Black Lace, Planet of the Vampires, Operazione Paura/Kill, Baby.... Kill!, Knives of the Avenger, Diabolik/Danger: Diabolik, Bay of Blood/Twitch of the Death Nerve, Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil/House of Exorcism -- these and others have been central cinematic experiences for those of us who scoured TV Guide, Castle of Frankenstein, drive-ins, nabes, grindhouses, 16mm catalogues, conventions and video stores for decades, seeking any nugget of Bava gold that might surface, under any number of titles, languages or versions.

Mario Bava's life and times covers the whole of Italian cinema from its inception (via the pioneer work of his father Eugenio Bava) to the present (via the work of Mario's son Lamberto and grandson Roberto), and is so much more than the scope of Mario's films as a director, marvelous as many of those films were and are when screened today. As Tim points out (and chronicles in loving detail), Mario was a cinematographer and special effects magician for as many years before he began his directorial career as he was involved in film after his 'official' directorial debut with Black Sunday (1960) -- and it's the rich illumination of Mario's family and personal life, as well as the cinema achievements and the films themselves, that makes All the Colors of the Dark such a powerful, moving read. And the illustrations, the eye-candy -- astounding! Astonishing! Intoxicating! From the rare family and behind-the-scenes photos to the abundance of fotobustas, lobby cards, inserts and one-sheets from around the world, this tome is a feast for the eyes on every single turn of the page. A more delicious, delirium-inducing treat for lovers of Bava's work, of Italian horror (and all genre) films, cannot be imagined; Bravo, Tim and Donna!

Like Ulrich Merkl's Winsor McCay Rarebit Fiend tome (see below), Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark is simply stunning as an art object and book -- it could not be more comprehensive, beautiful, or worthy of revisiting endlessly. Also like Merkl's comparable masterwork, Tim and Donna have elevated the realm of self-publishing, of following one's most heartfelt interests and obsessions to ultimate fruition, to a new level. Like Merkl's book, Tim's Mario Bava book simply would not exist had it been left to the vagaries of traditional author/agent/publisher economy: no publisher would have gone for this ride. They would have had a million reasons not to, if an agent managed to find a home for this book in the first place (highly unlikely, if not impossible). Publishers who do produce similar labors of love (FAB Press) weren't an option; Tim really had to do this himself, and Donna (his beloved wife) was the ideal partner in every imaginable support in the venture.

Hands down, book of the year -- perhaps the decade.

"R-A-G-G-M-O-P-P -- Ragmop!"

Rob Walton's Ragmop: A sadly overlooked graphic novel classic, revised, expanded, completed and the funniest comic of the year!

There were lots of stellar graphic novels out this year, but one of my personal favorites barely earned a nod from the wasteland that passes for the comics marketplace these days. Rob Walton's Ragmop -- another self-published magnum opus of 2007 -- was launched as a comic series back in the 1990s, and suffered a premature termination in the wake of the direct market distribution implosion, just shy of Rob's planned finish line. But now it's complete, in print, and highly recommended to one and all.

Taking up the challenge anew in 2005, Rob got back to work on his sf political/theological comedic epic, and thank God he did! In its final published form, Ragmop stands as the most hilarious graphic novel of 2007 in a sea of predominantly somber works, as well as a crazyquilt guerrilla attack on the whole of Western Civilization. The scope, breadth, heart and gutbuster audaciousness of Rob's antic epic bowls me over. That he sustains this giddy highwire (and absolutely savage) social satire over almost 500 pages is truly a feat of brilliance, and it's as current to 2007 -- more relevant, in fact -- as it was when Rob launched this Bob Clampett-like space-and-time voyage in the 1990s.

What else can I say? Hell, I love Ragmop!

Get Bit While You Can: Dream of the Rarebit Fiend

Get your copy while you can -- soon to be sold out forever! Ulrich Merkl's phenomenal, definitive Winsor McCayRarebit Fiend collection, another knockout example of the power of self-publishing in the 21st Century.

Ulrich Merkl's ravishing, absolutely definitive Dream of the Rarebit Fiend collection is jam-packed with much, much more than "just" the most complete collection of Winsor McCay's seminal comic strip available anywhere on Earth. It's also a comprehensive overview of McCay's life, career and the context of the times in which one of our greatest cartoonists created this still-amazing strip, which essentially poured the foundation for the whole of 20th Century comics (and, as Merkl demonstrates, much of its art, cinema and visionary works).

I covered this marvelous book in-depth -- including an exclusive interview with Dr. Merkl! -- back in July of this year; revisit that post, please, for more info and a peek at the art.

If you've the time and inclination, here's the link to a lively audio slideshow, based on the book, demonstrating the influence of McCay's work on many famous films (covered in further detail in the book, folks)!

But -- the book is almost gone! Quick, get yourself a copy while you can -- exclusively available from this link -- you won't want to miss this, if you can afford this once-in-a-lifetime book.

The book was announced as 'sold out' around Christmas, but I wrote Dr. Merkl and he replied:
"My U.S. stock will last until March, and when it is sold out, I'll still have 100 books here in Europe, if someone needs it badly, but the shipping cost is terrible, about $80.00 per copy (rather than $19.00 now from the U.S. stock).... The regular price to the U.S. is $114.00 + $19.00 packaging, handling, shipping = $133.00... Many thanks!" You've been alerted -- a Myrant service to those who care -- good luck!

Don't Flinch: Interrogation Dues

If you've the chops, here's a book excerpt and a powerful interview with Fear Up Harsh's author/soldier -- recommended listening.

Fear Up Harsh by Tony Lagouranis and Allen Mikaelian was the most human, disturbing, confrontational US military Iraq War account of the year, and that's a sobering thought given the clusterfuck of books on the subject that hit the shelves (and my reading table) in the past 12 months. "Something really bad happened here" -- understatement of the decade -- is what baby-faced U.S. Army interrogator Lagouranis was first told in his initial briefing at Abu Ghraib, and so begins this snapshot of the ordeal: for Lagouranis and his notion of self and God and country, for the 'detainees' and prisoners in his grasp (and worse still for those others 'worked on'). So begins this harrowing insider's account of perhaps the grossest "miscalculation" of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Rice new foreign policy paradigms, post 9/11.

Forced by circumstance, duty and the call of his commanders (and Commander in Chief) to think and act in ways once unthinkable, Lagouranis was soon under direct orders to join forces with his fellow soldiers to terrorize detainees and prisoners with increasingly abusive psychological tactics -- "fear up harsh," indeed. "If I'd gone ahead and cut Khalid's fingers off, where would that have led? What else would I have been capable of?" -- this is one of our new veterans of an unprovoked, preemptive war confronting the worst instincts of himself, of our tactics, our country's use of terror to wage a "war on terror." Under constant mortar fire themselves and trapped in the hellish hotbox complex that had once been Saddam's most infamous torture complex, Lagouranis and his countrymen used all means at their disposal to extract "information" from their brutalized, disoriented (and, Lagouranis acknowledges throughout, often innocent) Iraqis, settling into a methodical daily ruthlessness he ultimately found intolerable. It's the banality, the utter wrong-headed stupidity of these tactics ("...The result was that we were just inept. It was so typical of the army that is was laughable...") that rings loud and clear, alongside the wrenching depravity and desperation of our new national policy. It seeps deep, deep under the skin, into the marrow; what more don't we even suspect about what's being done in our name?

Hence, this book: essential reading for every American citizen, particularly those most likely to refuse to do so and most likely to support such policies, sans an ounce of Lagouranis's courage and patriotism.

Get Flocked!

Fave new sf and prehistoric novel of the year: James Robert Smith's The Flock, the high-octane killer novel from our own 'Hemlock Man'!

Technically, The Flock surfaced in the summer of 2006, but I didn't sink my teeth into it until after Marge and I moved into our new digs in Windsor (in fact, the hubbub of the major life change that culminated in the move kept this book off my reading table for months), so it's on my 2007 list, and long overdue some attention on the Myrant forum.

It's Blackwater vs. tribal prehistoric birds -- the carnivorous Pleistocenian phorusrhacid Titanis walleri -- in the wilds of Florida, and it's a hoot. I've been a fan of James Robert Smith's writing longer than almost anyone on Earth outside of his immediate circle, having read much of his short fiction since the late 1980s (and back in the Taboo years, as an editor scouring Bob's submissions; I think I paid Bob for his first pro sale, for that matter, which I can also say about novelist Tom Sniegoski and a few cartoonists). This, his first published novel, is superficially in the Jaws and Carnosaur mold; if it's ever adapted to film, that's how it'll be taken, no doubt. But that misses the point, really.

But what Bob accomplishes here (and the aspect that will be toughest of all to capture in any other media, save perhaps comics if it's ever adapted to that medium) is persuasively steeping the reader in the mindset of a pack animal's culture, ecology and literal pecking order amid life-altering conflict and crisis, and he does so with straightforward, yet always imaginative, efficiency. To my tastes, Bob's accomplishment ranks up there with my favorite Robert F. Jones adventure novels (Bloodsport, Slade's Glacier, The Diamond Bogo, etc.), but with (yum, yum) monsters. It's the unwavering intelligence, insight and empathy for the feral intelligence and ferocity of his predatory creatures that places The Flock amid my fave reads of 2007. I read a lot of fiction, little of it sticking to the mental ribs, but The Flock delivered and will be one of those I revisit down the road, for sure. Give it a read, you won't be sorry!

[Note: Bob did his homework! Florida indeed was the home of the Pleistocene giant flightless raptor Titanus walleri, which paleontologist Pierce Brodkarb described as "larger than the African ostrich and more than twice the size of the South American rhea", and which Alan Feduccia speculated "probably arrived in North America from South America during or slightly before the Ice Age, crossing over the Central American land bridge" (both quotes from Feduccia, The Age of Birds, 1980, Harvard University Press, pp. 105-106).]

Next installment: Zdenak Burian, Joe Hill, G. Michael Dobbs's Escape, Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls, Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters, Jon Savage's Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture and Jodi Picoult -- more fave books of 2007!

Shiny Beasts is Here!

Alan Moore Fans, Take Heed --

Well, we did it -- Rick Veitch, Alan Moore and I signed the same pieces of paper for the first time since 1999.

The earth did not shift, the sky did not fall, all went well.

But fair warning and high-alert to Alan Moore fans: this is likely to be your one and only chance, ever, to get all three signatures in one book, in one place.

You snooze, you lose. Jump on this opportunity.

To celebrate the release of Rick Veitch's latest trade paperback collection Shiny Beasts, Panel to Panel.net offers a once-in-a-lifetime, exclusive tipped-in bookplate signed by Rick Veitch, along with collaborators Alan Moore and Stephen R. Bissette.

As I've already boasted on this very blog, this new King Hell collection of primo past Rick Veitch treasures features one of Rick's and my key collaborative efforts, "Monkey See," from Epic #2. It's a story I'm still extremely proud of, and hope you'll enjoy. Shiny Beasts also features the one-and-only Epic story Alan Moore ever scripted, "Love Doesn't Last Forever," which also sports a graphic interstellar VD diseased panel ghosted by yours truly (making it yet another Moore/Veitch/Bissette collaborative effort from our personal 'golden age').

Like "Monkey See," "Love Doesn't Last Forever" has been out of print and hence out of reach for most avid Moore fans for almost a quarter-century, and it's well worth picking up the entire collection for this single jewel alone.

But Moore fans will want to jump on this singular signed bookplate most of all. It's no secret that (a) Alan has ceased attending any comics conventions or any US event whatsoever since the late 1980s, and (b) Alan chooses not to have any relations with yours truly, making a joint signing venture ever again in this lifetime highly unlikely (the last publicly-available signing was for Tim Underwood's hardcover limited edition of Stanley Wiater's and my own Comic Book Rebels, almost 15 years ago -- long out of print and out of circulation; FYI, the last co-signing of the three of us was for the contract necessary to the somber 1999 division of the '1963' characters and concepts as a legally-shared property).

Thus, PaneltoPanel is offering something exquisitely singular and rare here -- and quantities are extremely limited (there's only about 80 signature plates), so really, don't wait a moment to order. This may be your only window of opportunity.

Of course, all of this is gravy, really. Shiny Beasts is a collection well worth owning in any case, offering a one-stop overview of all of Rick Veitch's color comics work prior to his leap into the graphic novel form with the serialized Epic sf-adventure epic Abraxas and the Earthman (also recently collected by King Hell in a single volume, and essential reading). Actually, the Shiny Beasts body of work is sandwiched between Rick's first two graphic novels -- our collaborative effort on the Heavy Metal/Simon & Schuster movie adaptation graphic novel 1941: The Illustrated Story (1979) and Rick's Abraxas and the Earthman -- Rick really is one of the unsung pioneers of the graphic novel form, plunging into the expansive format a mere year or two after Will Eisner codified it with the pioneer A Contract With God (1977/78).

But what the hell, hardsell internet commerce sometimes requires further sweetening of the proverbial pot. All right, potheads, if you need any further coaxing --

order now, and receive free shipping on any other trade paperback collection from Rick Veitch's King Hell Press (here's the list, via this link).

So c'mon, what are you waiting for?

Don't forget to check out PaneltoPanel's other great exclusive bookplates, here; there's some great cartoonists, graphic novels, and rare signatures and bookplates to be found here!

Bryan Talbot's Alice in Sunderland, Rob Walton's Ragmop (among my favorite graphic novels of all time, pictured at left -- and one of the precious few graphic novels that's also hilarious), Michael Zulli's TMNT: Soul's Winter, Mark Martin's Runaway Comics (and the ultra-rare Runaway Comics 2.1), Bob Fingerman's delightful kids'n'zombies opus Recess Pieces, Gene Colan (!!!) signed bookplate for the Doctor Strange vs. Dracula collection, two volumes of Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more Rick Veitch -- Abraxas and the Earthman and Rick's masterpiece Can't Get No -- are among the choice books and bookplates still available (others are sold out -- so don't miss out on your personal fave while it's in reach).

Now, I get nothing from all this; PaneltoPanel proprietor John Rovnak is indeed an old friend, and former owner of the late, great defunct comic shop Comics Route (the best comic shop Vermont ever had). But I love the fact that John is so engaged with promoting such quality work, and ceaselessly promoting the artists and creators whose work he loves. That's something worth supporting across the board. If we can't get more John Rovnaks in this world, let's all support the John Rovnak we've got -- and if this signature event is what initiates your making PaneltoPanel a primary online source for your comics, so be it.

But most of all, this fine Monday morning, it's important to alert those of you who are mutual fans of Alan, Rick and I to this singular opportunity to snag Shiny Beasts with this rare signed bookplate -- an artifact of happier times, for some comics fans and readers -- and to do so now.

Have a great Monday morning, one and all -- it's a beaut of a morning here in Windsor, VT, and I'm eager to get on with my day.

Sunday Morning Review of Books...

...and comics.

Well, at least an overview of some recent and upcoming publications that may be of interest to some of you.

An opening morning thought (compliments of HomeyM, thanks, Homey!):

"The creative process is a process of waiting, trusting, acting, it has a deep wisdom, if we will surrender to it. The power of the unconscious rises to the page. It can be frightening. It is difficult. But it is in the vitality of this struggle between the writer and the word that we can create transformative work. Each book I have written has transformed me in the process. I write myself to the other side of my question..."

- Terry Tempest Williams

This past Friday, Charlito and Mister Phil

of the popular podcast venue Indie Spinner Rack

visited the Center for Cartoon Studies and interviewed yours truly at great length; that'll be online soon. As CCS fellow faculty member Robyn Chapman points out, Indie Spinner Rack has been a great supporter of CCS -- "they are donating half of the profits from their upcoming anthology to CCS," Robyn says -- and they are excellent promoters. Charlito is also a fellow XQB (Kubert School graduate), and it so happens we first met and he was a student there when I visited the school and presented an early version of the ever-expanding Journeys Into Fear: A History of Horror Comics slide show lecture.

Anyhoot, among the many things Charlito and Mister Phil grilled me about was "Why isn't there any new Bissette comics?," a question touched upon ad infinitum here from time to time. Which leads me to this morning's subject:

My work appears in a number of new comics and books! Here's a quick review of those goodies, now out and/or about to hit the shelves:

* Rick Veitch's King Hell Press is just releasing Rick's new anthology Shiny Beasts; for more relevant info, memories and details, and a peek at the story and artwork I had a hand in that appears in this anthology, check out

this previous blog posting,

and this one,

and then there's this, too! All worth visiting or revisiting.

Best of all, though, is Rick's own preview section he's posted online, here!

* The latest issue of Bob McLeod's magazine Rough Stuff #4 features an illustrated overview of some of my Swamp Thing pencils, with insights by yours truly, and best of all a lengthy illustrated interview with my venerable amigo and fellow Swamp Thing vet John Totleben. Pick it up, and pronto -- it's on the shelves now, or you can order your copy immediately

at the TwoMorrows publisher website.

I wrote about this issue on the blog

here

and here, including art, links, etc. of interest and delivering some immediate gratification and eye-candy delights.

* So much for vintage Bissette -- there's new stuff, too. here's the upcoming (shipping in May!) Accent UK Zombies anthology, for which I drew a cover, some interior spot illustrations, and completed a brand-new four-page Edward-Gorey like humor piece working with my son Daniel Bissette,

which I first announced here,

discussed at some length here,

blathered more about with this post,

and provided bios for the anthology's fellow contributors here.

That Zombies also features some stories and art by Center for Cartoon Studies students is a plus in my book, too!

I'm not sure if this anthology is going to make it over to the US, so best you check out

the Accent UK site and see about ordering your copy online, just in case.

I'll be posting more info, links, and tidbits on Zombies -- and the planned US followup, featuring much all-new work (including new material by yours truly!) -- later this coming month and spring. Keep your eye on this blog!

* In stores right now is the third (and, alas, final) issue of Mark Martin's most recent anthology Runaway Comics

which prints the complete version of "Blog Opera," the amazing story featuring me, Steve Bissette, trying to rescue my friend Mike Dobbs's severed head, which I previewed here

(lifting the images from Mark Martin's marvelous blog "Jabberous," which is forever linked on the menu at your immediate right), and which places me at last in the Brain That Wouldn't Die pantheon I secretly forever longed to belong to.

Thanks, Mark! Do I give head as well as I take head? You'll have to buy Runaway Comics #3 to find out!

I also have a teeny, tiny li'l drawing that's part of Mark's eye-popping back cover painting,

and you can find out the secrets of this back cover painting here, including my part in it -- scroll down the menu at the left Mark has created, and click on the contribution by everyone Mark invited to "come draw with me!" (which is also covered -- pun intended -- in the pages of Runaway Comics #3)!

So, don't hesitate, run right out today and pick up your copy of Runaway Comics #3! While you're at it, get Runaway Comics #1 and 2, too -- all great, fun reading -- and all available

here, where you can also preview every issue as well, right now.

Check 'em out, and tell Mark I sent you.

* I've also written the introductions for two new graphic novel collections -- one a partial reprint extensively revised and expanded into a whole new graphic novel, the other reprinting for the first time a seminal body of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle work by Michael Zulli. Both, though, are well worth picking up, and pronto!

If you scroll down a bit, you'll find my writeup of Michael Zulli's excellent TMNT: Soul's Winter here,

and you can order a copy here (with Michael's exquisite & exclusive signed bookplate as a bonus)!

* The amazing new graphic novel I proudly scribed an intro for is Rob Walton's masterpiece Ragmop, which doesn't "just" collect the existing pair of Ragmop series from the mid-1990s -- don't believe those know-it-all online putzes and pundits who claim otherwise.
Ragmop, the book, is not a reprint edition -- Rob completely revised, revamped, redrew, rewrote, and expanded the whole into a complete, self-standing and mighty hilarious satiric epic that is hands-down one of my favorite graphic novels of all time!

Here's Rob's blog and site, always worth a visit (on a regular basis),

and here's where you must immediately go and purchase a copy of Ragmop with the limited edition signed color bookplate -- no, right now. No excuses.

You think I refer to something as "my favorite graphic novel of all time" lightly?

So, there. Some new Bissette, some old Bissette -- all in print now, and in comics shops and bookstores now.

Now, I personally know how many of you did (and most of all how many didn't) order my son Dan's zine Hot Chicks Take Huge Shits last year, with my first-ever all-new comic story of the Millennium. A vast yawn greeted Dan and I with that little wonder. There's a stack of 'em signed sitting here in the SpiderBaby backstock; Dan was so discouraged with the cosmic indifference to his first effort he damn near killed himself -- good thing I talked him down out of that tree. That's right -- and it would have been your fault!

You don't really care whether I draw comics again, you just like to gripe about it, and expect me to post whatever I do online so you can dig it for free. Well, I'm on to your little game. I can just glance over at the huge stack remaining of Hot Chicks Take Huge Shits and I know what's what.

So get out there, or just click your fucking mouses, and buy the books and comics above. They're all great! I'll know if you did or didn't, bunky. Quit whining about my not doing anything and go buy 'em all, or leave me alone!

_____________________

On another matter all together, which Ragmop creator Rob Walton and I talked about during his visit here, and which Clan Apis and The Sandwalk Adventure creator (and biologist) Jay Hosler had a lot to say about during his visit to CCS, check out the comments on yesterday's blog posting for a lengthy comeback from Luke Przybylski about

this Easter blog posting, which I still stand by (your writing still played to the prejudices I noted, Luke).

I've replied in kind in the same comment thread, so check that out, too, and feel free to weigh in

(and feel free to read the local article in this recent post, too -- scroll down past the Grindhouse writeup -- as followup; that goes for you, too, Luke!).

Happy to talk about it, if anyone wishes to.

______________________

And this just in, Naomi Wolf's sobering Guardian story about how we're currently perceived overseas, and justifiably so.

Thanks to Tim Lucas for the link -- and y'all have a good Sunday, now, y'here?

Farewell, Rob Walton --

Rob just hit the road; I've got a lot of legwork to do on catch-up here, but it was a great three+ days and the Center for Cartoon Studies interaction was vital and worthwhile (by all reports). So, score! Safe drive home, Rob. I'll be posting pix here once the students share that with me, or post them online themselves.

I'll post later today with something of substance, I hope.

For today, I've got a recording session via phone with Lance Weiler later this morning for an upcoming live-soundtrack performance event of Lance's feature Head Trauma -- more on that later today, once I know more myself. Bryan Talbot and I are into the next phase (or two) of our interview series, this one on Bryan's book The Naked Artist -- more on that later. I'm speaking at the Westminster West Library in Westminster West, VT at 7 PM tonight -- more info on that in a bit -- which I'll be prepping for all day. Finally,we've got our plumber in the basement, installing the long-overdue pressure tank so our showers are more than a flower-watering-can's worth of water pressure.

And that's likely more than you care to know...

More later!

Little Gray Dot --

-- that's what Mark Martin keeps posting to note the utter insignificance of the various scandals and outrages manifesting around this clusterfuck Presidency.

He's right.

More Americans know and care about (with collective necrophile obsessiveness) the ongoing Anna Nichol Smith clusterfuck than know, care about or even recognize the name "Alberto Gonzales." Fantasy scenarios about Katie and Tom and their baby and Scientologist doctrine and 5-hour-sauna-torture-of-Katie, and Brad and Angelina, or poor Johnny Depp's daughter ("The Agony of Johnny Depp!") are more pressing than the War(s), Abu Ghraib, Guantanemo, than tax cuts and -- well, you get the idea.

But that doesn't mean you ignore the reality, join the lunacy.
____________

All I'm focused on yesterday and today week is CCS and our visitor Rob Walton.

Having a great, productive week, or so I think; really solid pair of sessions with the students yesterday, I think -- but all that matters, really, is what the students have to say about it amongst themselves, which I'll likely never know.

Seemed to go OK, though. Inking demo was fun, too -- Rob inks Bissette pencils, Bissette inks Rob pencils, tips and taps. Staging exercises. Sharing info, knowledge.

That matters.

Have a great Thursday -- gotta run!

Monday Musings

Hey, who's that curly-topped moron?

No, the one on the left!

This photo arrived from my old Mirage Studios amigo Ryan Brown this past week, and I thought some of you might get a kick out of it.

I'm the bozo on the left, scouring the bins for weird collectibles; that's toy and collectibles dealer Bill Bruegman dead center, and a youthful Kevin Eastman on the right.

Ah, a lot of water under the bridge since then. (BTW, as Marge and I unpack, a lot of old photos from the convention days are beginning to turn up -- I'll be posting them from time to time here, so let's favor Ryan's sharing of this photo as a harbinger of things to come as well as days gone by, shall we?)

Ryan writes, "Remember when we all boarded the Magic Bus for Mid Ohio Con and stopped at Bill Bruegman's Toy Scouts for a look at all his old toys? Ah... those were the days!"

They were indeed.

But that was then, this is now.

That was brought home in spades with this --

-- the other surprise that Ryan emailed me this weekend --

-- which I'll post sans further comment for now.

_________________

My 'Cash Flagg' reference and evocation of the great 'Cash Flagg' (aka Ray Dennis Steckler)'s magnum opus The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies prompted a couple of email jeers, but hey, here's the proof: yes, the film not only really existed, it's enjoyed a healthy (if odd, appropo enough) life on video and DVD.

(FYI, I mentioned the film when I referenced

Artemis aka Ashley Flagg's blog, here.)

I first saw the film under another title in a northern VT drive-in -- Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary was the moniker it was re-released as, with "ax wielding maniacs actually in the audience!" as its ballyhoo. Drive-ins didn't serve this gimmick well: stooges in rubbery 'Cash Flagg' monster masks dashed around the grounds in the dark, waving cardboard axes. We could barely see 'em from our car, though everyone started honking their horns, making for high spirits and dissolving the narcotic effect of the film itself into drive-in delirium.

This film came up again recently, as a clutch of the CCS students plan their annual Easter zombie film fest. One of the programmers is pushing for The Incredibly Strange Creatures to join the lineup, but I cautioned him -- I mean, it's not a zombie movie (acid-scarred caged maniacs do not zombies make, whatever the title sez). Besides, though I love the film, it's deadly dull, dominated by mind-numbing stage musical numbers that kill any festive movie-viewing gathering (I know from experience!). That said, it remains Steckler's most famous and infamous film, bar none; The Thrill Killers is a far more entertaining followup, to my mind, and my personal fave of the 'Cash Flagg' pantheon, spiced with livelier lunacy and a dollop or two of then-shocking onscreen violence (decapitations) and a "where the hell did this come from?" B-western-like chase finale typical of Steckler's eclectic cineuniverse.

'Nuff said on that!

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However, there was some tragic news that arrived this past weekend. Rick Veitch emailed me before the weekend with rumors that our old self-publishing 1990s tour amigo Drew Hayes had died --

-- and damn, it turned out to be true.

This is a real heartbreaker; Drew was only 37 years old.

Rick and I had let contact with Drew drift since the heyday of the Spirit of Independents tours of the mid-'90s, though Drew's Poison Elves soldiered on, beyond the collapse of Capital Distribution and the rise of the Diamond Monopoly, thanks largely to Sirius providing a sorely-needed publishing umbrella.

I don't know yet what happened, save for what's on the links posted above. My best to Drew's family and friends; it was a privilege to tour with him, and Drew poured himself 100% into his art and comics.

Damn, comics claims some good souls. Gene Day, Wally Wood, and too many others -- Drew went too young. He'll be missed.

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Work on the upcoming April WRIF -- the White River Indy Film festival -- is nearing completion, too, so I'll have some announcements (and an active link) to share by the coming weekend.

We've corraled an extraordinary lineup of films, complete with visiting filmmakers, panels and special events. I'll be hosting a panel of Vermont filmmakers on April 27, and if you're up for it, my lengthy presentation on Green Mountain Cinema: Vermont Films & Filmmakers helps kick off the event with a special April 22nd fundraiser.

More info next weekend!

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A Week of Walton!

Yep, my old pal Rob Walton is a-comin' in, so I'll be barely blogging after tomorrow. Rob is staying over with Marge and I here in our new homestead, and since he's sleeping in our guest room -- where the computer resides -- I'll be offline for the bulk of the week.

See you here tomorrow, then likely no more 'till Friday. No worries, I'll be back at it next week.

Rob is coming in part to work the Center for Cartoon Studies students to little nubs. We've got two intensive workshops planned -- a lecture-based overview of editing graphic novels on Wednesday morning, primarily composed of Rob's analysis of his revamp and revision of Ragmop into the graphic novel that saw print just last November, followed by a two-part afternoon drawing workshop we'll be tag-teaming on. See what you're missing, not attending CCS?

It's been years since Rob and I got to spend any time together, so we're both really looking forward to the week ahead. In the meantime, you can savor Rob's creations yourself, here in virtual space --

Here's Rob's website, always worth a visit, folks --

and that's not all. You see,

Rob also has a radio show, which you can access (with a little exploration) here. Enjoy!

OK, that's all for now -- have a great Monday, a great week, and see you here tomorrow. Got to get to my Monday duties...